Third Coat Lucky

The coat wrist tab has loose stitches, so I took it back again.  I like the coat, so I would rather get the same coat, rather than wait till they run out and I get credit, which I have to top up to get another coat.  

This time, instead of having a lucky dip in the rack, I looked at each one very closely.  Just when I thought I found a good one, it was missing one tooth on its zip.  The staff member had to get my two more to look at, and I settled on one of them. 

When I took it off in the car, I found a defect...  Albeit a small one...Let's hope this will last.

Annoying Green Owl

As it turns out, the green owl is bloody annoying!

French Sounds

So croque, croquette are all named because they are crunchy.  Are croquet and petanque too?!

Duolingo

We finally decided to look at Duolingo's offering.  It is all "free" but also tons of advert and paid options.  Let's see how long I can put up with the advertisement...

It is extremely gamifies.  In hindsight, maybe I should have done this for French.

Paris - Day Cinq

Our final day in Paris, we had a few more of the hotel hot chocolates, finished off the cruffin, and off we went.

We got Sarah some hot chocolate and a chocolate soup bowl.  I got some crisps.  We took the Metro to the station, and I got a palmier to go, and a box of palmito.

The train was slightly delayed, so we had loads of time sitting around, even though the immigration is a bit choatic.  We got a coffee from the Eurostar to have with the palmier, so good!  We got back to London before noon.

Paris - Day Quatre

Today was the big out of town experience, Versailles.  We walked to the big station Saint Lazare.  On the way there, we stopped at four boulangeries, shopped at two of them.  We got some sandwiches, and a kouign amann.  We took the train to Versailles, by the time we got off the train, one of the sandwiches was gone.

On our way to the palace, we stopped at another boulangerie, and actually bought a baguette aux graines.  I am not sure the French has the same definition of grains as the English... They were mostly seeds.

Versailles is massive!  We had the other sandwich then started queuing.  By the time we walked around the house, we already did 10,000 steps.  There were a lot and a lot of people!

We strolled down to the Trianon area, we were pretty knackered.  We finished walking around the Trianon area, had the kouign amann, which is a fat version of, and inferior to, a palmier...  By now we have done 20,000 steps!  We prepared for a long hike.  After seeing a few golf buggies having spare seats on them going back up, I thought, if I were hitchhiking, this is the time.  So I stuck my hand out, and an American father and son stopped and offered a lift, we were so grateful.  We got to see the bit we won't get to see otherwise, which was a much added bonus.

We were still knackered, we charged up with a coffee, and walked back.  We were going to try the other train station, but after some confusion, we walked back to the train station we came in from and went home.  

To make the most out of our apartment, we washed all our clothes, so we can come home with clean clothes.  We ate in the second time.  We got a French ready meal, Parmentier de Canard, and some mushrooms, which was very fresh.  

We topped up the dinner with a Too Good To Go from the posh bakery, a pesto focaccia bread, an olive bread stick and a cruffin.

Paris - Day Trois

I had a Too Good To Go chicken sandwich for breakfast.  The French sandwich bread was already fall apart...

We took the Metro to see Bastille Market, we got a Boskoop apple and a Braeburn apple, and the stallholder let us to have them for free.  Then I got a smoked chicken sausage, which I wished to be warm, but it wasn't.  We walked around Jardin De Plantes, ate my Too Good To Go ham, before hopping onto the Batobus.

We hopped off at the Louvre and hopped back on at Place de la Concorde.  The Batobus is the best photo spot for La Tour Eiffel!  The Boskoop apple was less crunchy than I prefer.

We hopped off at Notre Dame.  After days of trying, we still haven't managed to secure a ticket, so we just walked around it.  Then we also went up to the Latin Quarter, had a coffee and a crepe before hopping back onto the Batobus.  I was hoping there was time to go around and around, but that was not the case, so we got off at Hotel de Ville, and walked to dinner at Julien.

Because of the crepe, Sarah wiggled out of the snails.  We were there early, by Parisian standard.  I still find it strange that the French eat beef bourguignon with pasta... By the time we left, there was a queue at the door!

We were going to take the number 6 to see Eiffel at night, except that section was closed!  We only know about it when we walked all the way across the Montparnasse platforms!!!